One of the most historically loaded buildings in Atlanta has come through a restoration nearly a decade in the making - and it is now permanently protected.
Trust for Public Land announced that Atlanta's Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park has been formally expanded to take in the Prince Hall Masonic Temple and Lodge, the three-story building at Auburn Avenue and Hilliard Street known for its corner neon sign and distinctive facade. Built in 1937, it sits alongside the Atlanta Streetcar loop.
Before the renovation, the Atlanta History Center had identified the Lodge as one of metro Atlanta's two most historically significant unprotected buildings. "I've always thought the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge to be one of the most important buildings in Atlanta," said Sheffield Hale, the History Center's president and CEO. "Few buildings hold such a remarkable concentration of leaders, movements, and stories that have shaped our city."
The concentration is genuinely unusual. The building housed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s office and served for years as headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was a meeting place for the Atlanta Civic-Political League, which pushed for voting rights, and for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. It held a Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Shoppe, named for the woman who became America's first self-made female millionaire. And beginning in 1948 it was home to WERD, the first Black-owned and Black-directed radio station in the country - a platform for King and the SCLC, and one of the few public venues for Black blues and jazz artists during Jim Crow.
Trust for Public Land worked with the Prince Hall Masons, the National Park Service and local leaders to restore the building for public access and interpretation, with the SCLC offices returned to their historic character. The Atlanta History Center partnered with the Masons to catalog papers and artifacts held inside. The Masons have continued using part of the property as meeting space throughout.
The Lodge is set to open for public tours this spring with programming by the National Park Service. The park already draws more than half a million visitors a year, and NPS officials expect the addition to increase attendance while filling a real gap in what the site can show visitors.
"This Lodge is a sacred space," said Edward W. Bowen, a Prince Hall Masons legal advisor who served as a strategic advisor on the restoration. "Our mission is to ensure it continues to serve the community - not simply as a museum, but as a living, working place of historic and cultural significance."
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published March 2026.
